Theater review: ‘Adeline’s Play’ at Powerhouse Theatre

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Charm trumps craft in Kit Steinkellner’s world premiere “Adeline’s Play,” being presented by the Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble at the Powerhouse. Set in a small Midwestern industrial town during the Great Depression, Steinkellner’s comedy-drama is saturated with period coloration – and, one suspects, a few anachronisms. (Did people really talk about being “on the same page” in 1934?)

Lovable archetypes, each of which takes his or her turn as narrator, advance the plot. There’s elfin teenager Dorothy Anne (Dina Percia), shy newspaperman Buddy (Isaac Wade), obnoxious small-time politico CB Baldwin (Ariel Goldberg), former banker-turned-drifter Frank (Kyle Cadman) and bitter local mill worker Elna (Sarah Watson).

When Elna’s dazzlingly upbeat sister, Adeline (Coco Kleppinger), returns to town to direct one of Buddy’s plays, she spreads hopefulness in her wake. A local legend, Adeline is famous for having a line opposite Gable in “It Happened One Night” – but as we learn, her “stardom” came at a sad price.

Director Amanda Glaze and a capable cast play to type, quite effectively, in a subtly heightened staging that appropriately evokes the broader acting styles of the pre-Method era in which the play is set. However, Steinkellner violates the 1930s tone with contemporary flourishes that seem jarringly out of place. Characters seem far too willing to share their feelings during Adeline’s rehearsals, which are strangely reminiscent of a 1970s sensitivity-raising seminar. And after crisis implodes the group and derails the planned production, everyone drifts back together for no apparent reason, just in time for a feel-good ending that defies our belief and the characters’ motivations.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Adeline’s Play,” Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. Ends Sept. 5. $20. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.